Hit-Boy and The Alchemist have teamed up for “Slipping Into Darkness,” a new track and music video that sees them rapping over each other’s production.
The song starts with Alchemist delivering a verse over Hit-Boy’s smooth beat, flexing about his laidback life while flaunting about his success in the world of hip-hop. It’s an effortless delivery that acts as a reminder that Al can really rap, too, but it’s Hit-Boy’s bars that will garner the most attention.
Half-way through, the song abruptly switches up to Alchemist’s production, and Hit-Boy starts sending off shots to other producers including Metro Boomin, Mustard, and perhaps most notably, Hitmaka.
“When you move how you wanna move, you gon' make somebody mad / My n***a, I'm the best student Kanye ever had," he raps on his first verse. "I'm usually homeboys with produces I get compared to / But on this one, I wanna see 'em stretched out, extra legroom / I don't really know dude, he seem like a cool cat / But I never once heard Metro Boomin do boom bap / I never heard a Southside beat without an 808 in it / HB in drunk-driver mode, I swerve in every lane with it.”
The song already courted some attention when Hit-Boy offered up a preview of his verse, assumedly in response to Hitmaka’s suggesting he gets more radio play. “I fuck with Mustard, he can make that ratchet shit with his eyes closed / But now I’m starting to wonder, can that n***a chop soul? / I just seen Yung Berg spoke on the wave, I should do him like Trick Trick and snatch Hit out his name.”
Despite the shots fired, he ends the second verse by making it clear that it’s all out of respect. “And I ain’t dissin’ on nobody, I ain’t even write this / They came to me in a dream, they had it out for Hit / So I freestyled this verse over The Alchemist,” he closed the track.
The video does end with a clip of Hit-Boy on the phone, though, discussing his frustration with the current state of hip-hop production via FaceTime with The Game. “I was texting somebody this morning, I’m like, ‘It’s really no way to tell who the best producer is no more cause it’s four, five n***as on every beat,” he said. “I’m one of the only n***as that can make a beat by myself I feel like these days, n***a, shit crazy.” The Game and Hit previously worked on Drillmatic: Heart vs. Mind together.
Check out the track up top.
